# Date: 1920-09-24

emergency measures to combat illegal trade in fish, salt and their 
theft from fisheries and warehouses, arresting those responsible.2 Mean
while, according to a report from the Astrakhan provincial food commissar Nepry
akhin, the principal transporters of fish and salt are naval personnel. 
Since fish and salt are the chief foodstuffs of the Red Army, I propose 
that you immediately, in agreement with the extraordinary plenipotentiary 
of the Council of Labor and Defense Babkin, take energetic measures to put 
a stop to the illegal transport of fish and salt by naval personnel. Issue 
an appropriate order to the Caspian Fleet, organize inspections of military 
trains and confiscate any fish and salt found illegally stored and trans
ported. Hold those responsible accountable.
Chairman of the Council of Labor and Defense Lenin*

Printed from the typewritten text 
signed by V. I. Lenin

1 I. P. Babkin — party member since 1902. In 1917 actively participated in 
establishing Soviet power in the Don region. From 1920 — on Soviet and eco
nomic work.
2 On July 28, 1920, a telegram was sent over the signature of Chairman of the 
Council of Labor and Defense V. I. Lenin and Deputy People's Commissar of Food 
N. P. Bryukhanov to Astrakhan to the extraordinary plenipotentiary of the Council 
of Labor and Defense for Astrakhan Province I. P. Babkin regarding the organization 
of a struggle against speculation in fish and salt and the necessity of accounting 
for their catch at fisheries and in fishing enterprises (see "V. I. Lenin and the Astrakhan 
Region. Collection of documents and materials". 2nd ed., enlarged. Volgograd, 
1970, pp. 142—143).

RESOLUTION ON A TELEGRAM FROM A. M. KRASNOSHCHEKOV1

Urgent

To Fomin and Rykov
for written agreement on emergency measures.
13/IX [1920] Lenin

1 Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Far Eastern Republic 
A. M. Krasnoshchekov in a telegram from Verkhneudinsk of September 9, 1920 
reported on the situation in the FER and made a request to send a worker familiar 
with local conditions, capable of combating partisanship and separatism.

V. V. Fomin — commissar of the Main Administration of Communications and 
member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Railways.

* The telegram was also signed by Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military 
Council of the Republic E. M. Sklyansky and Commander of the Naval Forces of the 
Republic A. V. Nemits.

RESOLUTION AND NOTE ON A TELEGRAM 
FROM L. B. KRASIN FROM LONDON

[1920, September, not earlier than the 24th]

Comrade Lezhava!
Don't miss this! Come to an agreement with Trotsky or bring it to the Council 
of People's Commissars or the Council of Labor and Defense.1
Lenin

From London, 2/23 130/129 23/9 6 35
Received and deciphered 24/9/20

Moscow, to Chicherin
Copies: to Lezhava to Lenin to Krestinsky

Received message from Lomonosov from Berlin regarding Kopp's intention to 
realize 100 million rubles on September 24th through a questionable intermediary 
on conditions that exclude the possibility of placing a locomotive order in Germany. 
Attaching greatest importance to placing locomotives in Germany, and further, having 
grounds to regard with distrust the circle surrounding Kopp, I insist on postponing 
this deal pending notification to me of its conditions. Moreover, it is clear to all of 
us here that without the participation of English financial circles, any major deal 
in Germany will inevitably end in collapse. I await your immediate reply.

September 23, 1920. Krasin

1 Lenin constantly kept the question of locomotive orders abroad in view, as evi
denced by his correspondence. See Lenin Collected Works XXXVIII, pp. 329—330.

A. M. Lezhava — party member since 1904. In 1918—1920 — chairman of the 
Central Union of Consumers' Societies. At this time — Deputy People's Commissar 
of Foreign Trade.

L. D. Trotsky (Bronstein) — member of the RSDLP since 1897, from the Second 
Congress of the party — a Menshevik. During the years of reaction and the new 
revolutionary upsurge, he stood on the positions of liquidators. In 1912 he was 
the organizer of the anti-party August Bloc. During the period of the imperialist 
world war he occupied a centrist position. At the Sixth Congress of the RSDLP(b), 
together with a group of "interdistrict" delegates, he was admitted to the Bolshevik 
party. After the October Socialist Revolution he held a number of responsible posts. 
He waged factional struggle against the Leninist program of building socialism, 
advocated a capitullationist theory of the impossibility of the victory of socialism 
in the USSR. In 1927 he was expelled from the party; in 1929, for anti-Soviet activity, 
he was exiled from the USSR and in 1932 was deprived of Soviet citizenship. Being 
the bitterest enemy of Leninism, he continued his struggle against the Soviet state 
and the Communist Party, against the international communist movement.